Chapter 260

Chapter 260

Thankfully, the students who stormed into Class A's lecture room didn't start any kind of violent protest.

As Claudia appealed for students to join the boycott and sign the petition, the rest of the students from other classes gathered around the exit of the room and the walls as they stared at other students.

Of course, that alone was intimidating enough for a couple of students to sign.

"Guys!"

No longer able to bear the sight of this, Jamie—the class president—stepped in.

"Can you all please leave? You’re making my fellow classmates rather uncomfortable."

However, the protesters simply kept staring, pretending not to hear her.

"Don’t mind them..."

Meilyn stood up.

"They’re not worth paying attention to. What are they going to do?"

She strode out of the lecture room, pushing past anyone in her way without giving them so much as a glance. This quickly turned into a chain reaction as many more students in Class A determined it was safe to leave.

"I’m begging you, please!"

Claudia pleaded, her voice strained with desperation.

"We can all admit that Professor Belya’s class is grotesque, even for Kizen’s standards! So why aren’t any of you trying to change it? I want you to join us and take action!"

As Simon felt a slight hesitation come over the room, he glanced over at Rick and gave him a small nod. Rick returned the nod and began talking to Cami.

"Let’s go, Cami! Don’t you wanna grab the lunch special before they run out?"

"Oh, yes! The special..."

Rick continued the conversation and made sure that they could both walk out without her getting swept up in the mood and pressured into signing something she didn’t want to.

Just as Simon was about to leave the classroom after grabbing his things...

"Simon!"

Claudia hopped down from the stage and grabbed Simon by the cuff.

"Have you changed your mind?"

Currently, about 30% of Class A in some way supported the boycott. As far as Claudia was concerned, she had to recruit one of three key people if she wanted to get majority support.

Hector, Jamie, or Simon.

Hector, of course, wasn’t someone who’d be persuaded by a plea for mercy.

Jamie was close with everyone and was recognized as the class president. Claudia was determined to get her signature, whatever it took.

And Simon...

He was one of the students who represented the school beyond this class, and he was closely connected to all the members of Group 7. Getting a hold of Rick’s silver tongue alone was worth the effort.

Although Meilyn was the group leader, she knew that Simon was the core of their group. So, the other three would follow if she could convince him.

"We have to stop this vicious circle."

Begged Claudia.

"This isn’t just about me. It’s about protecting the human rights of Kizen students. If we fall here, Kizen will never change! You’re smart enough to understand that!!"

Simon was a little taken aback.

He wasn’t that close with her, but the parts of Claudia he did know barely matched the woman grabbing him by the arm with a voice strained by hours of fierce speeches.

Just a week ago, she was one of the most average girls in the class—except for the fact that she was the best at Poisonous Alchemy.

But within a week, she was like no other.

Claudia now firmly believed that the fate of the entire Kizen’s student population rests on her shoulders, and she orchestrated an incredibly risky ploy to do what she sees as necessary.

She had changed so drastically that one might wonder if she’d fallen under Serene’s mind control.

‘A sense of belonging really is a scary force.’

When speaking as an individual, you’re held far less accountable, so you’re free to speak up but change your mind afterward.

But when a group of like-minded people come together and make a public statement, the weight of that statement grows exponentially. Maybe it even grows enough to fire a Kizen professor.

However, of course, with great power comes great responsibility.

"I’m sorry, Claudia."

Knowing that no matter what reason he gave, Claudia wouldn’t listen, he turned away without giving any reason.

"Why in the world aren’t you helping us?!"

But she didn’t let go of Simon’s sleeve.

"You guys all know it! Poisoning students is wrong! So demanding to fix that is right and just! That’s why we took action. Why aren’t any of you helping us?!"

As Simon held his silence, she stammered,

"Are grades so important to you that we are—"

"Claudia."

"Ah, yeah?"

"If you could turn back time..."

Simon said with perfect calmness,

"...you wouldn’t really wanna do this, would you?"

Shatter.

Everything went cold as Claudia felt the walls she put up begin to crumble. Time seemed to slow around her and all she could hear was the same few words echoing through her mind.

That simple question...

It shook her.

Because she couldn’t deny it right away.

In her moment of shock and panic, she could feel the eyes of the hundreds of students she had talked into risking everything for what was right. She could feel their gazes burning through her skin as everything began to unravel.

"But can students just waltz into the night duty room?"

"There won’t be a problem if you have business! So from here on out, it all depends on the acting skills!"

After saying he’d demonstrate it first, Rick pushed open the door to the night duty room. He grabbed his stomach and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Oh my! My stomach! My intestines are about to burrrrrsssst!"

He stumbled into the night duty room while clearly exaggerating everything.

"Professor Belya, what in the world have you been feeding us??? The paaaaiiiiiinnnnn!"

As Rick shouted out, he very obviously winked at Simon to come in.

‘The second-hand embarrassment I get from being with him is unmatched...’

But Simon followed him regardless, feeling the burn in his cheeks as he entered.

"Oh dear, what’s going on?"

The on-duty manager could be heard beyond the curtain. She was frantically searching for something with her back turned.

"Argh! My stomach...! It aaaaches...! I think I need some kind of digestive or something..."

While Rick was busy with his... enthusiastic performance, Simon quickly scanned the room for the bulletin board.

‘I found i—! Hm?’

He found the board, but he also found some unwelcome faces.

"Who would’ve guessed? The shitheads are speaking out of their asses."

Hector, squaring up to make himself as intimidating as possible, glared coldly at Rick while two boys on either side of him sneered.

Then, Hector’s gaze turned to Simon.

"..."

"..."

As the two wordlessly stared each other down, one of the boys from Hector’s faction said in a loud whisper,

"Hector! I found your name over here!"

Hearing that, a grim smile tugged at the corners of Hector's mouth.

"This time for sure, we’ll find out who’s better, Simon Polentia."

"Why don’t you check who your opponent is first?"

With a frown, Hector turned to look at what his faction member was pointing at.

Simon also glanced to check.

[3rd Arena, 2R, Game 6]

Class A Hector Moore vs Class L Malcolm Randolph.

"Dammit!"

As his face turned purple with rage, Rick shouted while holding his stomach.

"Ahhhhh! My bellyyyy! There are like few hundred in upper squuuaaad! The laughter from him expecting to be matched perfectly is making my stomach hurt even harder!"

Pfft!

Even the faction members covered their mouths in laughter. Ignoring that, Hector strode up to Simon.

As Hector approached with murder in his eyes, Simon brought some jet-black into his fingertips in case of a fight, but the only battle Hector fought was one of words.

"We’ll settle our duel in the third BDMAT."

With those words, Hector strode past Simon.

Simon scratched the side of his head.

‘For some reason, there are a lot of people targeting me in this test.’

"Wait for us, Hector!"

The faction members quickly followed after Hector. Just then, the voice of the on-duty manager rang out again from behind the curtain.

"Ah, Hector! I found the antiseptic!"

But Hector had already slammed the door shut and left.

A moment later, one of the two boys trailing behind Hector creaked open the door, poked his head in, and murmured,

"A-Apparently, he doesn’t need it anymore. Haha!"

Then he quickly closed the door and fled.

"Hector’s temper is the same as always..."

Rick clicked his tongue.

"I bet he’d try to challenge you to a fight even if he was dead. His will probably says to write ‘Fight me, Simon Polentia’ on his gravestone."

"And what brings you two here?"

Asked the manager, poking her head out.

Coming back to his senses, Rick grabbed his stomach and started acting again.

"Arggggggghhhhhhh! My stomach! Professor Belya, I resent yoooooouuuuuuu!"

While Rick drew her attention, Simon quickly checked the list for the Duel Evaluation.

He found and memorized Rick’s opponent’s name first, then found his own close by.

‘I just need to avoid Serene, Chatelle, and Lorain. I’d want to avoid fighting Meilyn, too...’

Internally begging not to fight any of them, Simon finally looked at the name of his opponent.

‘Oh, no.’

An awkward smile formed on his face.

——